Could these balls help reduce plastic pollution?

Concern is mounting over the volume of plastics in our oceans and, in particular, how tiny particles of plastic and other synthetic materials are infiltrating every part of our ecosystem. Can technology help address the problem?

In October 2009, windsurfing teacher Rachael Miller went to help clean up an island off the coast of Maine in the north-east of the US.

There had been a heavy storm and “we found the beach covered in debris”, she says, mostly washed up plastic fishing gear.

Her husband was incensed. “Marine debris is one of the few things that really make me angry,” he said.

So Ms Miller, who had studied marine archaeology, decided to devote herself to keeping plastics from ever reaching the ocean.

In April, she began selling a special gadget for capturing those tiny bits of synthetic material – called microfibres – that come off our clothes in the wash.

Four inches (10cm) in diameter and made from recycled rubber, the Cora Ball imitates the structure of coral plants in the ocean, and captures between a quarter and a third of microfibres in every wash, the company says.

In Denmark, 60% of all sewage sludge is “getting used in agriculture,” says Lars Monster from the KD Group, a wastewater tech company in the southern Danish town of Vejle.

These solid remnants from waste water treatment are distributed on farmland as fertiliser. But plastics in the sludge then enter the food chain.

One problem is that most wastewater treatment plants don’t aim to remove microfibres, largely because regulations don’t require them to.

So Mr Monster’s company has developed a new filtration technology that can remove 90% of microplastics, he says. He’s hoping to get the figure up to 96%.

The ultimate aim is to recycle all the removed plastics, says Mr Monster, and “get to the point where microplastics are a resource”.

Four science and bioengineering students at London’s Imperial College won a prize in October for coming up with an inexpensive way to remove microplastics from wastewater.

Image copyrightImperial College London

Image caption
Students Jedidiah Cheung and Dario Mongiardi are working on filtering out microplastics

Introducing an additional compound to the filtration stage of treatment could remove upwards of 99% of microplastics cheaply without retrofitting a treatment centre, says Dario Mongiardi, one of the students.